Aliens
by anja-chan
Summary: Co-written by me, Tobi Tortue, and SlvrSoleAlchmst1 in a renga-style. The Archangel's under attack from... aliens! As captain, what can Murrue Ramius do? What can any of the crew do?


**Aliens**

**Gundam Seed**

XXXX

"I found the strangest thing in my pocket." Mwu smiled cheekily at his captain as he retrieved her hand. He eyed the appendage carefully, inspecting each digit.

Murrue raised an eyebrow and wiggled her hand back into the pilot's back pocket in response. "And what could that be?" she asked, playing along coyly.

"I'm not sure, I think I should _check it out_," he replied, trying to keep a straight face in regards to his own bad pun as his eyes traveled up the length of the Archangel captain's arm and then up and down her curvaceous figure.

Murrue broke into a pained smile, trying not to laugh, but couldn't help herself as a few chuckles escaped. Her other hand wrapped around her side.

"Alright, alright," Mwu conceded, "I know that was bad. But," he continued, flourishing a finger, "I can make it up to you, Captain Ramius. I think you'll find inspecting my quarters quite enjoyable…."

Murrue let herself be drawn along, her hand in Mwu's, floating down the corridor. Somehow she always felt more at home aboard the Archangel than on Earth and she was glad to be back and even more so when it wasn't war time and she could allow herself to relax. She mentally made a note to close down the onboard hot springs 'for cleaning' later. In that fashion, she and Mwu couldn't be bothered by—

_Woooom._

"What was that?" Mwu asked, letting go of the handrail so that the two of them stopped moving.

_Woooom. _

The intercom suddenly crackled on, Miriallia's voice loud and clear. "Captain Ramius, please report to the bridge!"

Murrue cast Mwu a pained look before turning to the intercom to respond to Miriallia's urgent call.

"Acknowledged, CIC. I'm coming to the bridge right now. Please tell Lieutenant Badgiruel to assume command until—"

_Woooom._

Mwu caught Captain Ramius as she stumbled at the force of impact. "Whoa there. If you fall into me chest-first like that again, you might not make it to the bridge at all."

Murrue raised an eyebrow and gave him a wry smile as she straightened her uniform and turned to face the direction of the Archangel's bridge. "It seems that I won't be exploring your quarters after all, Lieutenant La Flaga."

"Hmm. Shame we have to be attacked at a time like this."

Natarle Badgiruel's voice rang over the loudspeakers, oblivious to the moment that Murrue and Mwu were attempting to steal. "All hands to Level One battle stations. I repeat, all hands to—damn it, what _is_ this thing?"

Mwu's snarky grin receded into a frown, the lines on his forehead creasing in concern. "It sounds bad. Get up there, Captain. I'll go to the hangar and prepare to launch in the Skygrasper if need be…."

"Where's Kira?" Murrue called as she took off for the bridge. "Tell him to launch in the Strike as soon as possible!" She took the ship's elevator two levels up to the bridge and burst in to assume command. "Status?" she gasped, her eyes everywhere at once as she attempted to determine their immediate level of danger.

Miriallia glanced up from her vid screen. "I've told Kira to launch in the Strike, but…."

"Captain," Natarle cut in, swift and harsh like static radio crackle, "I demand an answer. What were you thinking, putting us on this course? I've never _seen_ anything like--"

"Lieutenant Badgireul," Murrue interrupted smoothly, "I've only just returned from my rest period. Kindly tell me what were up against before you--"

_Woooom._

"Just look out the starboard window and see!" Natarle screeched before hissing a command to ready the Valiants and Helldarts. "_I don't even know what it is._"

Captain Ramius took the commander's chair and called up a close shot of the starboard side on her video screen, squinting at the picture that came into focus. "What in God's name…." She squinted harder.

Then she bit her lip and paled, fighting back a scream.

Black eyes turned on her from the distant creature, and although she knew—_she knew—_it couldn't know she was watching it from inside her safe little ship, on a tiny screen next to her captain's seat, she felt her blood run cold as a single eye looked back at her, and, it felt, _into_ her.

Slowly she could take in the rest of the creature, as long as she didn't dare take her gaze from the vast empty blackness of its eye. Her peripheral vision caught dark colors, purple, crimson, brown, veined with spidery white lines. Whatever it was, it was enormous. Probably as big as the Archangel.

It stared at her, and right through her, the eye forming a pupil of deep, billowing red and purple. Every logical part of her told her it could not see her, that she was actually completely enclosed by the thick walls of the battleship….

But logic wasn't working.

There was no way to win against it.

She should just give up now.

The monster would probably like for them to not fight back.

"CAPTAIN!" Natarle shouted, shaking her forcefully. Murrue started and looked into the familiar woman's face with surprise. When had the Lieutenant approached her? "Your orders," the woman hissed, eyes narrowing.

Murrue looked around the bridge, and a jolt of fear struck her as she realized how completely absorbed she had been in staring at the creature. She closed the video window with looking at it again, feeling dizzy.

_Woooom_.

"Where are the Strike and La Flaga's Skygrasper?" she asked, forcing her voice to ring with its usual authority.

"The Strike has just sortied and the Skygrasper is ready to launch!" came Miriallia's quick response.

"Have them approach the creature, but tell them not to attack it yet!" Murrue commanded.

"But-" Lieutenant Badgiruel began hotly.

"We need to find out if it truly is hostile!" she responded shortly, cutting off the other woman's retort. Murrue thought that the creature was probably hostile, but at the same time she felt almost as if she had no control of the words coming out of her mouth.

"Have you been paying any attention?!" the dark-haired officer yelled.

The Archangel shook, the groans of straining metal echoing throughout the entire ship.

_Woooom._

"Captain!" Natarle shouted again, as the ship heaved sideways, throwing several officers to the floor. Murrue grabbed the Lieutenant's arm in one hand, a railing in the other and both women stayed on their feet. Their faces were left inches apart. "We're going to be sunk if this continues," the violet-eyed woman hissed.

Another shudder of the Archangel through them further apart, and Murrue moved to her seat. She needed to protect her crew, but still… what if the creature was simply… unaware of their plight? "Ready Lohengrins. Fire warning shots on my mark. Kira?"

The teen's helmeted and anxious face appeared on a screen. "Ready, Miss Murrue. Are you alright?"

"Don't anger it unnecessarily, but…." She wavered on indecision again, avoiding Natarle's hostile glare. "It may not be hostile, just… different. Do you understand, Kira?"

The young pilot gave her a pained expression. It shocked the captain. She had thought that out of anyone, the peace-loving boy would appreciate the need to be careful to the creature. "But the Archangel—"

"Just be careful, okay?" she cut him off, her voice losing it's luster and silencing the boy with it's unusual quiet. She sat back into her seat, wondering what they would do next. They couldn't fight something like that… even if she felt like fighting it was the right move… the best they could hope to do was jettison off into the escape pods and hope for someone to come along and pick them up….

"Lohengrins at the ready, Captain." The Archangel groaned as if under pressure.

Murrue snapped out of her daze. "Remember, warning shots. Fire!"

The rockets shot off over beast, casting crazy shadows all across the surrounding space in the light of the explosion.

Mwu's face suddenly appeared on the telecommunications screen. "Captain! What's going on? Permission to launch!"

Murrue realized with a start that the Skygrasper was still on the launchpad. But what good could Mwu do out there? He'd only get himself killed, and she couldn't go through that pain again.

"Permission denied, Lieutenant."

A few hushed gasps sounded around the bridge, but she ignored them. What did they know of being the captain? It would be her responsibility if anyone got hurt… she didn't want to anger the creature and have it destroy everything. Unwillingly, she turned back to the visual of its big eye.

_Woooom._

She didn't need to fight it, even if she could.

It was hopeless.

Their only option was to pray for it to leave them.

"Murrue! Murrue!" Mwu's voice was distant over the communications link. The eye drew her in deeper into its blackness.

"There's nothing we can do," she heard herself say. A surreal calm draped over the bridge, suffocating like a thick fog. The world felt disjointed.

"Murrue! Get ahold of yourself!" Mwu shouted again. She couldn't find the energy to look him in the eyes. And besides the creature already knew.

_Woooom._

Mwu's voice continued on in the background, but Murrue no longer heard it clearly. The Archangel rumbled ominously, the sound of iron twisting, metal plating rupturing, and screws popping.

"Captain!" Lieutenant Badgireul's pale angular face encompassed Murrue's field of vision, but her voice was so, so far away. She gave Natarle a puzzled look as she watched the Lieutenant's mouth move, bubbles of mumbled sound escaping. It wasn't worth listening to.

_Woooom._

Murrue closed her eyes to make Natarle's face disappear. It worked unsurprisingly and blissfully all Murrue Ramius could here was:

_Woooom._

XXXX

"Murrue?" Mwu's voice floated gently down to her and she slowly became aware of a warm hand on her cheek. Light shone pink through her eyelids and she was lying down.

"What…?" she managed, but her mouth was dry and her words came out raspy. She opened her eyes just as Mwu's head obscured the bright lights above her.

"It's okay, beautiful. We're safe," he replied, tenderly stroking her hair. "Do you remember anything?"

Murrue thought a moment. Certainly, there had been a monster attacking the Archangel and now… was she dead? She remembered….

"An eye?"

"Good girl," Mwu said gently, "But don't think on it too hard. All you need to know is that it's gone now."

"But how?" she queried. She had been sure they were going to die, so sure that… "I gave up?!"

She sat up too quickly and Mwu held onto her as her headrush struck. "Shush, we know it's not your fault."

Her vision cleared and her head stopped pounding, but she continued to enjoy the feeling of Mwu's arms around her. She twisted her head to peer up at him. "What happened?"

A snarky smile spread across his features. "I disobeyed orders and then lead a mutiny to take control of the Archangel."

Murrue blinked. "Mwu, I don't understand."

"That's Captain La Flaga to you," he said smiling, then focused his blue eyes and looked her up and down. "I suppose you'll just have to be my cabin wench until the former captain is ready to lead again."

She still didn't understand exactly what had happened, but as Captain La Flaga scooped her up and carried her off, Murrue decided it could wait.

XXXX

* * *

_So, that was a product of myself, Tobi Tortue and the SlvrSoleAlchmst1. We began by choosing an anime (Gundam SEED), then a theme (Aliens), and finally found a random prompt generator that gave us the line "I found the strangest thing in my pocket." With these three things, we each began typing madly away for ten minutes. Then we rotated the laptops among each other and wrote for another ten minutes on different stories. When we switched again, we only allowed ourselves to read the section that was written in the ten minutes directly before us… meaning we didn't know how the story had started. (Some of you may recognize this as a 'renga.') I don't remember how many rounds we had for this, but we finished by writing the endings to our own stories. Anyway, if there are any plot discrepancies, or something seems off… that's why. Hope it was enjoyable, nonetheless!_


End file.
